sewing-girl between the ages of fourteen and eighteen,
she was to be a virgin, and it was necessary that she should, as well as
every person in the house, keep the secret faithfully, in order that no
suspicion of our proceedings should reach the Inquisition, or all would
be lost.

"I intend to take up my quarters here to-morrow," I added; "I require two
meals every day, and the only wine I can drink is jevese. For my
breakfast I drink a peculiar kind of chocolate which I make myself, and
which I have brought with me. I promise to pay my own expenses in case we
do not succeed. Please remove the hemp to a place sufficiently distant
from the house, so that its bad smell may not annoy the spirits to be
evoked by me, and let the air be purified by the discharge of gunpowder.
Besides, you must send a trusty servant to-morrow to convey our luggage
from the hotel here, and keep constantly in the house and at my disposal
one hundred new wax candles and three torches."

After I had given those instructions to Franzia, I left him, and went
towards Cesena with Capitani, but we had not gone a hundred yards when we
heard the good man running after us.

"Sir," he said to me, "be kind enough to take back the forty crowns which
you paid to my wife for the hemp."

"No, I will not do anything of the sort, for I do not want you to sustain
any loss."

"Take them back, I beg. I can sell the hemp in the course of the day for
forty crowns without difficulty."

"In that case I will, for I have confidence in what you say."

Such proceedings on my part impressed the excellent man very favourably,
and he entertained the deepest veneration for me, which was increased,
when, against Capitani's advice, I resolutely refused one hundred sequins
which he wanted to force upon me for my travelling expenses. I threw him
into raptures by telling him that on the eve of possessing an immense
treasure, it was unnecessary to think of such trifles.

The next morning our luggage was sent for, and we found ourselves
comfortably located in the house of the wealthy and simple Franzia.

He gave us a good dinner, but with too many dishes, and I told him to be
more economical, and to give only some good fish for our supper, which he
did. After supper he told me that, as far as the young maiden was
concerned, he thought he could recommend his daughter Javotte, as he had
consulted his wife, and had found I could rely upon the girl being a
virgin.

"Very good,